. : : November 13th, 2011 : : .
Speaking of bands that opened for Maria Taylor that I haven’t uploaded in the better part of a decade…
Maria’s sister, Kate Taylor, and brother-in-law Taylor Hollingsworth formed an alt-country “cowpunk” bluesy husband-and-wife band known as Dead Fingers. Some four-months before their debut album dropped, with only a three-song sampler to their name, Maria took the duo on the road with her to help generate some buzz.
It must’ve been effective, because the duo was listed as one of the top 12 bands you should know in Alabama by Paste Magazine shortly thereafter. A follow-up disc, Big Black Dog, was issued in 2014, but the band has been radio silent since. While Hollingsworth continues to regularly release as a solo artist, Kate seems to have transitioned to a part-time role in the scene (perhaps to care for the couple’s daughter, born shortly after the eponymous debut).
A shame, really, because both spouses have the support of indie rock darling Conor Oberst, who has featured both, separately and together, in various incarnations of his bands and has even released a cover of Hollingsworth’s song Dominos with Phoebe Bridgers.
As always, the Drake Underground sounds fantastic — which is good, because sometime between the first and second opening bands, my lapel microphones came unplugged and I didn’t notice until around the third song. There’s a cut out and channel switching while the mics get plugged back in, and eagle-eared listeners (is that a thing?) may notice a difference between the quality of the microphones.
Listening back, I know it wasn’t the quality of the tape that has kept it offline for so long — it was the difficulty narrowing down the set list. Setlist.fm wasn’t a thing back then. Nor was Spotify, or Apple Music, and BandCamp hadn’t really caught on yet. The majority of the songs performed were as of yet unreleased, and there’s a couple I still can’t figure out today, even with the digital aids!
But if you’re willing to look past a few songs being question marks, there’s an eclectic genre mash of blues, hill billy Americana and radio-friendly alt-country on display in Dead Finger’s 40-minute set.
- Closet Full of Bones
- On My Way
- [unknown]
- [banter]
- Hold On To
- [unknown]
- Bonnie and Clyde [Taylor Hollingsworth]
- [banter]
- [Wheels and Gasoline]
- [banter]
- 4 Stone Coaches
- Lost in Mississippi
- Ring Around Saturn
[info.txt // FLAC Fingerprint] … [ ZIP MP3 Link ]
